Students work on the block “M” that now welcomes students to the athletic stadium at the Dutch Drive entrance. Photo courtesy of Joseph Freeman.

by Sara Swanson

Even if you haven’t been to a game at the Manchester Community School’s newly renovated athletic stadium, this fall, if you’ve driven down Dutch Drive, you’ve probably noticed the prominent block “M”. The M not only welcomes students to their stadium but was actually built by students as well!

Joseph Freeman, who heads up the welding program at Manchester Jr/Sr High School, explained how that came to be. He stated, “The block M was originally bid into the Complex Bond at an exorbitant price so the school leadership and myself said, ‘Why don’t we just build this in-house?’ We had received a grant a couple of years ago from the state to expand our welding and metals curriculum at Manchester High School, so we had all the equipment to design and construct the monument. We cut out the shapes with our plasma cutting table using a CAD/CAM software and the students welded each piece together.”

Freeman credited Drey Foulke, a freshman at the time, who took the lead on the project. He stated, “With the help of a few other students, they had the monument built and ground smooth in a couple months.” The powder coating was done by RMC in Chelsea, who gave them a discounted rate because it was a student project at the school.

It turns out there was even a bigger unforeseen benefit in the “M” being fabricated in-house by students. Freeman continued, “Mike Tindal (school board member) reached out to me and said the Chicken Broil wanted to make a donation to the classroom for the hard work that was done to make the monument. We are very thankful to them and look forward to using that money to expand other projects in the classroom.” The Chicken Broil committee has pledged $12,000 to the program.

Freeman pointed out that this is an example of what Career Technical Education (CTE) looks like and that they are looking forward to what the future could hold for all of the CTE classes if the CTE millage passes.

Drey Foulke standing next the block M, which he took the lead in constructing. Photo courtesy of Joseph Freeman.

Freshly powder-coated block M. Photo courtesy of Joseph Freeman.

Newly installed block M in its permanent location in front of the athletic complex. Photo courtesy of Joseph Freeman.